Finding St. Louis Blues Fan’s Most-Hated Players In The Central
The St. Louis Blues have been a hard-hitting team for the majority of their existence since 1967, and as a result of this hard play, they have made some enemies.
The Central Division is the epitome of why the NHL is such a great league to watch. It is physical, yet full of skill and the St. Louis Blues are in the middle of one of the toughest divisions in the league.
Year after year, the Cental is able to bring at least four teams to the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and often times they can obtain five births to the postseason.
It took 100 points to earn the Central Division title, an award that was handed to the Nashville Predators for the second consecutive season. However last year, the division title was not locked in until the final day of the regular season.
With the format of the Stanley Cup Playoffs being what it is (although controversial and frowned upon by this writer), it creates intense rivalries that leave a foul taste in fan’s mouths all summer.
Blues fans know this all too well after seemingly playing the Blackhawks in the first round of the playoffs for what seemed like a decade. Lucky for Blues fans, the Hawks are in the midst of a retooling phase and have not won a playoff game in three years.
The criteria for hating another player on a different team, especially a rival team, varies by individual. Sometimes a specific player injures one of your favorites, or sometimes that player scores a big goal in a meaningful game.
Whatever your reasoning for disliking a player, let’s try to dig in and find some that every Blues fan can relate to. If I miss someone, I am sure you guys will let me know.
Dustin Byfuglien
The Jets have been really good over the past two seasons. Like the Blues, they fell one point shy of winning the Central division in 2019, and that forced a first-round matchup between the two teams.
Byfuglien is one of the game’s best defenseman and is always a preseason candidate to take home the Norris Trophy as the league’s best defenseman. Despite the premature accolades, Blues fans still find a special place in their heart for him.
The 6’5 260-pound blueliner has played for both the Jets and the ever-hated Chicago Blackhawks. Even though Byfuglien was not nearly as effective in Chicago as he is in Winnipeg, anyone who plays for the Hawks at some point in his career will be looked upon with certain malice.
He has no problem throwing around his body when he plays against the Blues, and though this may just be him compensating for the Blues’ physical style of play, anytime you see someone hit a player you love, you tend to develop a hatred.
I think Byfuglien’s status as a rival to Blues fans has a level of respect. Byfuglien is a bonafide superstar, and anytime you have a player of his caliber in your own division, you tend not to like him so much.
I would not consider the Jets a big rival to the Blues. The two teams have not faced each other in the playoffs all that often over recent years, and that can be attributed to the Jets lack of performance.
However, now that the Jets seem to be Stanley Cup contenders year after year, I am sure Blues fans will find new players to look down upon when they touch the puck at Enterprise Center.
Ryan Ellis
If I wrote this article last season, P.K. Subban would have run away with the nod as the Predators representative. So I thought it would only be fair to insert another defenseman as his replacement.
Teammate Roman Josi was also a candidate to headline the Predators slide, so think of Ellis and Josi as a 1A and 1B scenario.
Ellis is signed through the 2025-26 season at a rate of $6.25 million a year. I’m not sure of any player that is signed for that long, but it does mean that Blues fans will see a lot of him for many years to come.
Ellis is not as big as Byfuglien, but he plays a similar style of play. I will preface my next sentence by saying that any player who plays in the NHL has earned my respect and I am that person sure deserves to be there.
However, Ellis does not produce offensively nearly as much as the Jets star does, or even Subban for that matter.
So Blues fan’s hatred toward Ellis would be purely out of spite. The Blues and Predators rivalry is a new one. Like the Jets, the Predators have had a long history of underachieving.
As a result of this lack of performance, the Blues have not been matched up with the Predators in recent memory aside from their meeting three years ago.
The Blues will see plenty of Ellis for what seems like the rest of the 28-year-old’s career and the fisty 5’10 defensemen will get under the skin of a lot of the fans at Enterprise Center.
Matt Dumba
The Wild’s representative for this article was a difficult choice. Although the two teams have a significant playoff history in recent years, there are no players that have made Blues fans cringe on a regular basis.
There were a few other candidates that were in consideration for this list, including Devan Dubnyk and Ryan Sutter. However, in the end, we went with Dumba.
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Dumba is only 25 years old but still has considerable experience playing in the NHL and Central Division, and it is hard to go unnoticed to Blues fans when you play for the Minnesota Wild.
Dumba is the third defenseman to make this list, and of the two defensemen before him, his play resembles similarly to Ellis.
The Wild blueliner had a career-high 50 points in 2017-18 but registered just 22 points in 32 games for the Wild last season.
It is hard to extend your displeasure to someone who only played in 32 games last season, but if he is healthy next season, I am sure we will see some boos directed at Dumba.
Jamie Benn
This was not a hard decision. Benn has been the thorn in every Blues fan’s side since he came into the league. From scoring big goals to sitting on our captain, putting Benn on this list was not a difficult choice.
It does not help Benn’s candidacy that he is also a prolific goal scorer and a player who goes to the All-Star Game every season.
Benn, also, is not going anywhere anytime soon. Like Ellis, he is locked up for a very long time and is making a lot of money. The 30-year-old forward is making $9.5 million until 2024-25.
Lucky for Blues fans, the fact that St. Louis beat the Stars in the second round in Game 7 in double overtime helps alleviate a lot of the pain that Benn may have caused in year’s past.
The Stars are going to be a thorn in the Blues’ side for a long time. They showed the capability to beat some great teams down the stretch last season and have revamped their roster again this offseason.
Ben Bishop was a Vezina Trophy finalist for league’s best goaltender, and they were also able to sign former San Jose Shark’s captain Joe Pavelski to a three-year deal.
There were a variety of other players that could have made this list. Alexander Radulov and Corey Perry were close to beating out Benn for the Stars representative.
Joonas Donskoi
In case you missed it, Donskoi is now a member of the Colorado Avalanche after signing a four-year deal worth $3.9 million a year.
There may have been more conventional picks for the Avalanche’s candidate. Gabriel Landeskog and Nathan MacKinnon come to mind just because of their absurd skill levels.
However because the postseason is such an emotional time for every hockey fan, but especially Blues fans, the villains created in a playoff series tend to last a lifetime.
Donskoi came to the Avalanche after spending the first four years of his career in San Jose. He was a key member of the Sharks playoff run in 2016 that saw him reach the Stanley Cup Final.
Can you remember who the Sharks beat to get to the final against the Pittsburgh Penguins? I will give you a hint, they are now the defending Stanley Cup Champions.
Donskoi was really good for the Sharks during that playoff run. In 24 games for San Jose, he registered six goals and six assists. The Sharks eventually dismembered the Blues in six games in the Western Conference Finals to advance to the Stanley Cup Final.
The acquisition of Donksoi may come back to be one of the best under the radar moves by a team when the 2020 season is over. However, for Blues fans, we will see Donskoi in an Avs sweater for at least four more years.
Jonathan Toews
I will be honest, on Monday, Patrick Kane was my choice for most-hated Blackhawk, and he very well could be for a lot of Blues fans. However, after the comments made by Toews the other day, he wins this race.
If you missed it, Toews had some interesting comments about the Blues winning the Stanley Cup, and they were not endearing to the team. I covered the debacle here.
There is not much that needs to be said as to why Toews is one of the most hated players to St. Louis sports fans. He has won three Stanley Cups, and he has gone through the Blues in many playoff series.
Even when Toews contract is over in 2022-23, and his 10.5$ million a year salary is off the books, Blues fans will still hold a special hatred in their hearts for the future Hall of Famer.
Next. How Doug Armstrong Built The Greatest Blues Team Ever. dark
All of the players listed in this piece are players Blues fans can rally behind in terms of booing on the ice. Even if Toews and Kane are the only ones who get booed every time they touch the puck, each of these players has earned a mutual dislike with the 314 community.